Mixing Up the Wars

Tuesday

Sep 3, 2013 at 10:05 AMSep 3, 2013 at 10:34 AM

One thing that has struck me over the past five days or so is how little most Americans, from journalists to Congressmen to this Regime, understands about Syria and Syrian history. Often, you hear about Iraq and 2003, when, in fact, it’s really 1963 and we are itching to bail out a failed French dictator in a remote part of the world where we have no interests other than stopping a domino from falling. Yesterday, an aide to a prominent Democratic Congressman told me that he was baffled by the decision by the British Parliament to opt out of an international coalition. It never occurred either to the aide or the Congressman that to many Brits this is a “French” problem, part of the partition of the mandate one hundred years ago. I’m going to do what I always do–recommend a book. Try A Line in the Sand; the Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East 1914-1948 by James Barr. It’s not a great book, but the Vietnam parallel, and the fact that our Regime is about to put its first toe into the quagmire, will become evident.

Rob Meltzer

One thing that has struck me over the past five days or so is how little most Americans, from journalists to Congressmen to this Regime, understands about Syria and Syrian history. Often, you hear about Iraq and 2003, when, in fact, it’s really 1963 and we are itching to bail out a failed French dictator in a remote part of the world where we have no interests other than stopping a domino from falling. Yesterday, an aide to a prominent Democratic Congressman told me that he was baffled by the decision by the British Parliament to opt out of an international coalition. It never occurred either to the aide or the Congressman that to many Brits this is a “French” problem, part of the partition of the mandate one hundred years ago. I’m going to do what I always do–recommend a book. Try A Line in the Sand; the Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East 1914-1948 by James Barr. It’s not a great book, but the Vietnam parallel, and the fact that our Regime is about to put its first toe into the quagmire, will become evident.